Thursday, July 12, 2007

TIF Talk 2.0

Citizen Asks Prosecutor to File Charges in Harrison Square Project
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/8443727.html

"The main argument from local citizen John Kalb is that city personnel jumped the gun in spending Jefferson Pointe tax revenues on the purchase of at least five pieces of property where the Harrison Square baseball stadium, a hotel and other components are proposed to be built."

"In May, the city redevelopment commission expanded a special taxing or TIF district downtown, to permit use of tax monies from Jefferson Pointe stores to buy the Harrison Square land.

Kalb says city personnel cut checks in January for the land, and that violated the law.

But Mayor Richard's administration contends Kalb doesn't understand the point of the law."

RELATED JOHN B. KALB VIDEO

11 comments:

Unknown said...

enjoying your 15 minutes of fame John?

Scott Bryson said...

This just goes to show the desperate measures that opponents of economic progress will go in this city. But it doesn't really surprise me. John has shown a complete lack of understanding about this project and appealed to people's fear to get what he wants. But he doesn't have to live with the consequences. The young people that live here would be the ones to correct another mistake by the people like him.

My question is, what does he hope to accomplish in this suit? Is he going to though the entire government in jail? Like I have stated before, the project will go forward even if he sues them.

This is only a sign of desperation on his part.

Unknown said...

Amen Scott. Not only is this action futile, but it would be costly. And for Mrs. Goldner, can you imagine a quicker way to ruin a reputation than filing charges against your own city's administration?

John B. Kalb said...

Scott (non-S) and Joe: So I am an opponent of economic progress because I oppose wrecking a 14 year old baseball stadium just to enable building a new one at five times the cost? Scott(non-S) - I am planning to live at lest 14 more years - the useful life of your baseball stadiums - so I will be around for a while. And Joe, please tell me how the heck "Mrs. Goldner(??)"is involved in this? Who are you talking about? There is a Karen Goldner who will be the Democratic challanger to Don Schmidt and she is a member of the Redevelopment Commission, but I don't understand your comment in regard to her.
John B. Kalb

Scott Bryson said...

But as we have discussed before John, MS bring no economic value to the area that it is in. So why continue to invest in something that is completely useless to the area that it is in.

Unknown said...

oops I meant Karen Richards, not Karen Goldner.

Unknown said...

and just to reinforce what Scott said...people right now go jump in the car, go to a game, and then head right home. A downtown stadium with shopping and restaurants, and a reasonable hotel = more money being spent in our city!! Couple this with the right North river project and families may just come to the center of our city for a weekend getaway...something we haven't seen for years.

John B. Kalb said...

Joe - Our friends bring their grandkids to our town from Grand Rapids for a weekend - they love to visit our zoo. Also many people from all over the world spend many days at our library working on geneology - later this month a national geneological convention is using Fort Wayne for their annual meeting. So what is a baseball stadium downtown going to do to bring visitors from more than 50 miles away - YOU GUYS ARE DREAMING again - it just isn't going to work as it is being sold to us!!! John B. Kalb

Jeff Pruitt said...

"But Mayor Richard's administration contends Kalb doesn't understand the point of the law."

So now we have the law and the point of the law. So does the mayor decide the point of the law?

As citizens we should demand nothing less than our government fully complying w/ the letter of the law - after all, they wrote it.

I hear the Redevelopment Commission is no longer claiming that they didn't need appraisals for the HS properties because they didn't use eminent domain.

Perhaps they're getting around to reading the law...

Scott Bryson said...

John,

I don't know how many conferences you have been to but usually people like to do something else after the day's sessions. People will come here for a conference or to use the library, but these things end or close sometime during the day. If it was me, I would like to do something afterwards besides sitting in my hotel room watching TV. Maybe you expect that people are here for only one reason and have no other desires to do anything else while they are here. If that is what you think, you are mistaken. But then again you believe that people don't need to be entertained but just work.

Do I dream, sure. That is the problem with this town. If you dream, you are thought of less. You want people to work and go home and watch TV. I and most other people like to do other things besides that. And why not enhance other people's experience of Fort Wayne. The zoo is great and so is the library. Why not give them one more thing to enhance the experience they have of Fort Wayne?

Maybe your problem is that you have just become too cynical to dream big anymore.

Unknown said...

apparently John doesn't agree with Fort Wayne's new motto "Room for Dreams". Perhaps we should change it to "Room for Mediocrity"?